Page 18 of Home to You
“You know,” he said after a moment. “When I said yes to getting up at the crack of dawn, I didn’t realize I’d be babysitting you through a midlife crisis.”
“Shut up,” I muttered, but my lips twitched as I fought a grin.
“C’mon, man. You’ve had that panicked look on your face since dinner last night. You gonna tell me what happened with Eden yesterday, or do I need to make something up?”
“I don’t even know what happened,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “One minute we were talking, sort of catching up on the last ten years of our lives, and the next—” I cut myself off, groaning softly as the memory hit me full force.
The way her back arched when I slid inside her, the little gasp she made when I sucked that bruise into her skin, her pussy fluttering over my cock while my fingers dug into her hips. The look on her face afterwards, like she couldn’t quite believe what we’d done.
A gust of wind hit me full in the face, sharp enough to make my eyes water, but it didn't chase away the heat crawling up my neck at the memory. I had to shift in my saddle to ease the sudden tightness in my jeans.
“Let me guess,” he said with a knowing smirk. “Eden showed up lookin’ real cute and all those old feelings came rushing back. Next thing you know, she’s moaning your name while you’re balls deep inside her.”
“Gage.” I gave him a long warning look, one brow ticking up as I turned toward him in my saddle. It was the kind of look that said, “Keep talking about her like that and you’ll be on your ass in the dirt.”
“Okay, I get it.” He raised a hand in mock surrender, but chuckled under his breath. “Still, that didn’t take long.”
I shook my head, exhaling a long breath. “You’re a child. No, worse.”
He grinned. “Maybe. But I’m also not wrong, am I?”
The crunch of hooves on frozen earth and the distant creak of a hawk overhead filled the quiet space between us. The wind picked up again, cutting through my jacket. Even the weather seemed determined to strip me bare today, leave me with nothing to hide behind.
Gage fiddled with the zipper on his jacket, then glanced sideways again. “Look,” he said more seriously now. “I’m notjudging. You’ve been hung up on that woman for ten long years. No one’s surprised you took one look at her and fell right back into her orbit.”
I frowned, but didn’t otherwise respond. What could I say in my defense? That was exactly what’d happened.
We continued riding until Tommy, one of the ranch hands, gave a sharp whistle, the sound cutting through the wind, and gestured toward a break in the fence line.
“What does Eden think about all this?” Gage asked as we kicked our horses into a trot and made our way to Tommy.
“All this?” I asked, feigning ignorance.
He glanced over at me, an eyebrow cocked and his lips twisted to the side. It was a look that said, “Don’t play dumb.”
“Couldn’t really say,” I told him. “Haven’t talked to her since she left.”
Gage turned to look at me fully, his brows raised. “You didn’t call?”
“Didn’t get the chance. We’ve been out here since sun up, and I haven’t had signal all day.”
My brother snorted, half amused, half exasperated. “You’re telling me the man who keeps a satellite radio in his truck and backup batteries in his glove box can’t figure out how to send a fucking text to the woman he just had sex with?”
I let out a tired breath, shaking my head. “I was gonna call her when we got back.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked away again, clearly not buying it.
“I was,” I said, more firmly this time. “I just … needed to think. Figure out what the hell I’m doing.”
My brother’s expression softened, just a little. “You’re doing what you always do when it comes to Eden James: tying yourself up in knots.” He paused. “Did you ever even try to move on … after she left?”
His question hit harder than I wanted to admit. It wasn’t that I hadn’t; it was that Icouldn’t. When Jenna found out she was pregnant, I’d tried like hell to bury my memories of Eden six feet deep. I told myself I needed to love Jenna the way she deserved—completely and without reservation. But Eden lived in the spaces between my ribs, in the catch of my breath when I spied auburn hair moving through a crowd. Even when I held Cole for the first time, part of me wondered what Eden and my children might have looked like. In the end, I had to come clean with Jenna: we couldn’t be together.
I stared out toward the horizon, where the sky met snow-tipped peaks in the distance. Snow this early on the Gallatin Range meant it was going to be a long winter.
“She broke your heart,” Gage added, his voice turning quieter. “We all know that. But we also know you’d get down on your knees and beg her to love you if you thought there was still a chance.”
I looked over at him again, but this time, there was no glare in my expression. Just a worn-out kind of truth sitting heavy in my chest.
